Iraq’s ‘Political System Is Now Functioning,’ Mr. President?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 1:20 pm
President Obama was pretty subdued when talking about Iraq last night at his press conference last night. “We just saw an election in Iraq that went relatively peacefully and you get a sense that the political system is now functioning in a meaningful way,” Obama said about last weekend’s provincial elections. “Relatively” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
Anbar Province, the former hotbed of the Sunni insurgency, is locked in a contentious inter-Sunni struggle over who in fact won the election, complete with competing accusations of vote fraud and intimidation. This New York Times piece gives a sense of the combustibility of the situation:
Mr. Taha, the winning candidate from Anbar, who was one of the front-runners on Mr. Mutlaq’s slate there, has served as a sports and youth adviser for the region’s governor and was, he claimed, a protégé of Saddam Hussein’s son Uday during the 1990s. (That the governor is affiliated to the Iraqi Islamic Party shows how convoluted politics have become in Anbar and elsewhere.)
He said his supporters had been threatened and beaten by police officers loyal to the Islamic Party — before the election and after. “People will be eliminated,” Mr. Taha, 37, warned.
And yet Taha is, by his own admission, hiding in a Green Zone hotel, “afraid” to go back to Anbar.
Now for a premature meta-point. For years, former President George W. Bush misrepresented the depth and nature of violence in Iraq so as not to jeopardize his political standing and his desired course for the occupation. People didn’t like being lied to. Bush’s legacy and his party paid the cost.
This is a lesson Obama should really take to heart. Obama doesn’t want to be in the position of misrepresenting reality in Iraq so as to jeopardize a very desired troop reduction and then withdrawal. The same goes for progressives more broadly. Withdrawal is guaranteed by the Status of Forces Agreement. It doesn’t need a rosy portrait of the situation in Iraq. A million things can go wrong in Iraq. Nothing will go even close to right without a clear-eyed assessment of what the situation actually is. Frankly, if Bush gave the statement that Obama did last night, I suspect progressives would reject it as a sign of detachment from reality.
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2 Comments
Comment posted February 10, 2009 @ 2:02 pm
The Bush’s Foreign Policies are the source of the Economic Problem and President Obama want to continue on with it.
The new US Governments of President Obama are trying to adopt President Bush’s Foreign Policies with regards of wars, trade and human right. They are even worse than Mr. Bush starting with. Lessen are not learned from all of Mr. Bush’s mistakes.
There are many indications that Mr. Obama is going to follow wrong policy of the past. He is calling for the implementations of King Abdullah plan which is basically eliminating the existence of Israel peacefully. He is adding the Iranian PJAK to the terrorist list before starting the negotiations with Iran. He is trembling with his plan of Foreign Policy changes already. His teams are the old team without any new ideas.
The US Governments are in needs of new ideas for the survival economically, politically to sustain the US Military power around the world.
The US Governments are in need of people not dictators and corrupt politicians. The Islamic worlds are in transitions and wars against the interest of the USA. The no change or cosmetic changes are not enough to stop the Islamic extremist and terrorist movement in “Muslim World”.
Please read our articles and the Article below to see what we are saying for over one year now:
“Munich and the Continuity Between the Bush and Obama Foreign Policies
February 9, 2009 | 2004 GMT
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090209_munich_…
By George Friedman
While the Munich Security Conference brought together senior leaders from most major countries and many minor ones last weekend, none was more significant than U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. This is because Biden provided the first glimpse of U.S. foreign policy under President Barack Obama. Most conference attendees were looking forward to a dramatic shift in U.S. foreign policy under the Obama administration. What was interesting about Biden’s speech was how little change there has been in the U.S. position and how much the attendees and the media were cheered by it.
After Biden’s speech, there was much talk about a change in the tone of U.S. policy. But it is not clear to us whether this was because the tone has changed, or because the attendees’ hearing has. They seemed delighted to be addressed by Biden rather than by former Vice President Dick Cheney — delighted to the extent that this itself represented a change in policy. Thus, in everything Biden said, the conference attendees saw rays of a new policy.
Policy Continuity: Iran and Russia
Consider Iran. The Obama administration’s position, as staked out by Biden, is that the United States is prepared to speak directly to Iran provided that the Iranians do two things. First, Tehran must end its nuclear weapons program. Second, Tehran must stop supporting terrorists, by which Biden meant Hamas and Hezbollah. Once the Iranians do that, the Americans will talk to them. The Bush administration was equally prepared to talk to Iran given those preconditions. The Iranians make the point that such concessions come after talks, not before, and that the United States must change its attitude toward Iran before there can be talks, something Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani emphasized after the meeting. Apart from the emphasis on a willingness to talk, the terms Biden laid out for such talks are identical to the terms under the Bush administration.”
We at the “Jaff Sassani Organizations” from Iran and Iraq have been writing about the Wrong policy of the US Government around the World and Especially about Russian, Iran and “Muslim World”.
Please read our articles in the addresses below:
http://www.opednews.com/author/author26258.html
http://www.buzzle.com/authors.asp?author=22116
http://www.jaff-sassanie.com/Default.aspx
Dear American people please take your time to fix the wrong doing of your Government around the World. Stop your Government wrong policy in favor of the right policy. By helping other nations just like what you did after the World War II.
You country are suffering “Morally and economically” because of the special interest, lobbyist and the wrong policy of the US Government for the last fifty years.
The World people are more educated and much smarter people than before. They see your country as an Imperialist; change those perceptions now before it is too late. Do not let the special interest and lobbyist run the US Government again.
The old Ideas of People like former President Clinton, Dr. Zbigniew Bzrezinski, Dr. Hennery Kissinger are outdated and dead wrong.
We are loyal friend of the US people and want to warn you about the wrong policy of your Government in the past. And hope that your new Governments are smarter and have some humanity toward other nations around the World. That is the way to make ally and friends not sale others for small gains. They are putting up Kurds for sale; the Kurdish people are the only nation want to be your friend but your Governments are always disappointing them over and over.
The unjust policies of the US Government are measured by the sale of poor and hopeless nations like Kurds.
Sincerely,
Jaff Sassani
From the SKDC
Comment posted February 10, 2009 @ 5:16 pm
The US Government always Ready to Sell Kurds
The history of the Kurdish people in Middle East are full of betrayal and double crossing by their own leaders and outside forces too. Since the US Government are involved in the Middle East politics they are ready always to betrayal and back step the Kurdish people one way or another. The Kurdish people’s territories are occupied by three nations in that region. Persian, Arabs and Turks nations are in control of the Kurds nation territories. The US Government are dealing with those three nations and offering them the Kurdish people as sacrifice lam to get business and political concision's from them always.
The Kurds keep going back and going back to the US Government and ask them for help. It is very strange indeed. Why the Kurdish nations are not learning to take lesson.
The Kurdish nation has the same problem for selecting the leaders. They are most of the time in their history selecting leaders with the characteristics like Talabani and Barzani. The Talabani are comparing himself to the President Bush of America; he is saying I do not read newspaper and I do not listen to TV and radio either. Talabani are calling his critics dogs barking on the moon. The Kurds are not capable to do what American people did in the elections of President Obama as an answer to the President Bush’s policy of not listening to his critics.
The Kurdish people have leaders like Barzani; who happened to be uneducated and involved in the corruptions like Talabani. But the Kurds are supporting them blindly without thinking about their own children futures. Their support of American and begging American Government for help are matching the pattern of selecting their own leaders.
What is wrong with the Kurdish people? Why they are not capable to differentiate between good and evil when coming to select leaders and friends.
The leaders are the kind of people who cares about his people welfare and their future. After fifty years of Barzani and Talabani family in Southern Kurdistan what is not known by the Kurdish people to keep them as their own leaders.
The US Governments are very close to the Arabs because of their Oil. The US Governments are very close to Turkey because they are part of NATO and important to stop Russian advance into warm water. The US governments are very friendly to the Persian because they are united among themselves to run Iran alone. They are not looking for help from the USA or other countries either. The US government always seeking to be friend with the Persian, Arabs and Turks.
The US Government under President Nixon answered the Kurdish questions through his Secretary of State Hennery Kissinger. As Kissinger once said about the CIA's betrayal of Iraqi Kurds, covert action should not be confused with missionary work.
The US Governments and EU are labeling Kurdish movement like PKK, PJAK as terrorist and not doing any thing for Kurds who are fighting peacefully either. The Kurds should understand that the US Governments are pro Arabs. The Arab terrorists are fighting the US Forces in Iraq but the US Governments are trying to have peace with them without paying attentions to the Kurdish people needs.
The US Government helped Barzani and Talabani families without any feeling for the Kurdish people well being. The Bush administrations’ was capable to build Kurdistan and have democratic system if they are friend of the Kurdish people. But they choice Barzani and Talabani family and allowed them to take the Kurdish people budget money instead of helping Kurdish people to have constitutions and rule of laws.
The US Governments are not friend of Kurdish people in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria period. The Kurdish leaders are not serving Kurdish people interest. They are in the business to make money; they are “War Merchant” only.
We are at the “Jaff Sassani organizations” are calling up on you our fellow Kurds to support our plan for building the “Aryan Economic Union (AU)”; for the Aryan or Iranian people from “Pakistan to Turkey and from Kurdistan to former Soviet Union countries”. We are offering independent country for each nation within that “Economic Union”. If Turks want to join us we are going to have ATU instead of AU.
Stop supporting leaders like Barzani and Talabani kind. Stop begging the US Government for help. The US governments are not going to help the Kurdish people.
Sincerely,
Jaff Sassani
From the SKDC
jaff.skdc@googlemail.com
http://www.jaff-sassanie.com/Default.aspx
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